A Futile and Stupid Gesture: How Doug Kenney and National Lampoon Changed Comedy Forever

“Hey Guys: Look fun's fun and everything and I can take a
good ribbing as well as the next guy, sure. But, come on there are
some things that just aren't funny. I mean, I do not eat other fel-
lows' shit off of plates with a fork. I don't ever do that. ”

—Fictitious letter to the editor from Chevy Chase
in the April 1976 issue of National Lampoon

The following things happened in 1976: a New Jersey family
sought to have their comatose daughter, Karen Anne Quinlan,
legally removed from life support; Frampton Comes Alive topped
the pop charts; Patty Hearst went on trial for bank robbery; Georgia governor Jimmy Carter swept to victory in the Iowa caucuses,
becoming the Democratic presidential front runner; Steve Jobs and
Steve Wozniak founded Apple, Inc., in a Silicon Valley garage; Howard Hughes died; North and South Vietnam reunified as the Socialist

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